This week my novel, From a Distance, came out. On the cover is my original painting done in acrylics. I hired a cover designer on Fiverr with 4000+ reviews, including many good images of completed covers, but he couldn’t seem to understand my needs. So, I went back to the drawing board and created my own cover, including the painting.
I started my novel twenty-eight years ago. Needless to say it has gone through a number of modifications. In the end I decided to remain true to the original story.
I learned a lot about the art of writing and the industry as I submitted my novel to be critiqued at writers’ conferences through the years. Among five hundred or so writers, agents and editors expect they might discover one new talent they want to publish. That of course means there are many hopefuls out there who will never be published. Even if you find an agent, you may end up like a friend of mine who has waited for years for her agent to think it is “the right time” to publish her ready for print book.
Enter the new era of self publishing on Amazon. Authors have always had the option of self publishing but Amazon makes it easy, relatively speaking. You simply follow the Amazon specifications and upload your manuscript and cover. If you fail to follow the guidelines it will not upload.
That’s the technical side. Publishing. I decided to take this route and my book is now available for sale on Amazon.
As to the writing. The main characters of my story, Paul and Greta, of course fall in love. They meet for the first time when Greta is selling her art at Art in the Park in Portland, Maine. It’s a hot, humid afternoon. Greta is wearing a large, floppy hat and annoying sunglasses that prevent Paul from seeing her eyes. She is tall and slender with a flawless complexion and long, blond hair. Paul admires her beauty but it is her transparency and tentativeness, being that this is her first art show, that captivates Paul.
Paul tries to encourage her. Greta gives him a simple watercolor painting and tells him he can keep it, for encouraging her. They are interrupted by someone who wants to buy her paintings. Since Greta is busy, Paul walks away to buy a hot dog and when he returns she has dismantled her white top tent and disappeared. All he knows is that her name is Margaret C., as she signed her paintings. The next year he returns to look for her but she isn’t there. It dawns on him that he too was wearing sunglasses and a hat. They both might not recognize each other were they to meet again.
I think you will enjoy the budding romance between Paul and Greta, the caring nature of the maternal Aime, Greta’s somewhat eccentric friends, Cari and Helen and of course Todd McLean, Paul’s replacement as youth pastor while he is away. Because of her difficult past and the fact that she has a daughter she gave up for adoption at the age of three, Greta is very careful about entering into a relationship. Paul is equally afraid of pursing the wrong woman. While Greta struggles to build a career as an artist, she longs to be reunited with her daughter. It becomes clear that she expects any man who is interested in her to be prepared for the eventuality that she may some day get her daughter back. Greta did not want to end up like her mother, a single parent desperate to marry and ending up marrying badly.
When Greta seeks comfort at a church, after her grandmother dies, she has a bad experience which taints her. She is leery when Aime offers her a job working in a church. I tried to develop the church like different characters. Writing about the church grows out of my years of experience in various aspects of church ministry including planting a church with my husband and working in missions overseas. I graduated with a major in Church Ministries and a Minor in Counselling and then continued on to attend seminary.
I do hope you will enjoy my book, From a Distance and tell your friends about it. It was truly a “labor of love.” I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on the book. It would mean a lot to me if you helped me get the word out. Thank you, from my heart, for the support you have shown me by subscribing and reading my work here on Substack.
Having known Tina and read her words for years, I’m sure this will be a brilliant and enjoyable read. So happy she “got her done”. The cover is beautiful too.
Di,